Uncle Fabian's Gold Watch
by xxbasementjaxx
Summary: AU non-magical. Set in post-WWII London. Percy Weasley, recently released from St. Mungo's, struggles to remember anything about his childhood. Suddenly in the possession of a gold watch which bring back memories of Uncle Fabian; he and Audrey, a fellow St. Mungo's patient, find out exactly why Percy forgot about his childhood.
1. Chapter 1

**A FEW IMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT THE STORY: This is an AU non-magical story about Percy and Audrey, set in London 1962. Percy is 23 years old, but Audrey is 20. For the people out there who bothered to calculate Percy's date of birth and realized that it coincides with the start of WWII, well done, that's an important factor in the story. And for anyone, having read or done the previous sentence, who made the connection that Percy would be five years old when WWII ends and that Percy was five years old when Voldemort's first reign ended in canon, very well done, that will also be an important factor. The main pairing is Percy/Audrey, but there won't be loads and loads of romance, as it is mostly a mystery fic. There won't be much swearing either, but it does have semi-graphic mentions of torture, violence, death, killing and all that, but nothing explicit (none in this chapter, though).  
**

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter doesn't belong to me. I'd be far too lazy to write 7 books.  
**

**I think that's it. Enjoy.  
**

* * *

**Uncle Fabian's Gold Watch**

**Chapter 1- The Wrist Straps**

Percy Weasley folded up the last cardboard box and placed in the pile of other folded up cardboard boxes before straightening himself and observing the room.

He had finally finished unpacking all his possessions into his new London flat, and it looked very neat and tidy. He smiled satisfactorily to no one and pushed his glasses up his nose, even though they weren't actually in danger of slipping.

It was a very small flat, one bedroom and a living room, which had a kitchenette and a small table to eat on. He had a three-person sofa and a television set, and along the wall he had a bookshelf, which he had almost managed to fill.

It had taken him just under a week to finish unpacking, which was quite a long time considering he owned next to no possessions.

At first, he had been so unused to having the freedom to organise anything by himself, he had just left the boxes thinking a nurse would do it for him.

But he no longer resided at the Psychiatric Department of St. Mungo's Hospital for Maladies and Injuries, which meant he was independent to sort out his belongings any way he wished.

Now that he was done, he thought he would do a little reading. It was four in the afternoon, and when he was at St. Mungo's, he was always reading at that time. Skimming his fingers along the books on his bookshelf, he picked a book and sat on the sofa, opening it.

However, he had read no further than the first sentence of _A History of Scottish Presbyterian Churches_ when he closed it. He had read the book four times over at least, and it was starting to get dull. But he didn't really know what else to do, since he had spent the better part of two years at St. Mungo's and the routine he had there had become part of his life.

Yes, he reasoned with himself, he badly needed to find a job, but he really couldn't bring himself to do so. He had spent most of the week searching for one, but had found nothing of interest to him and he was starting to get frustrated at just the thought of looking for a job.

He had lost his old job as an MP because of his prolonged stay at St. Mungo's, but he was not keen to get back into politics, as the stress of it all had sent him into a nervous breakdown which had taken him two years to recover from.

He knew he needed income fast, and whilst he did have a respectable amount in his bank account for a twenty-three year old, it was not enough for him to retire on, even if his new flat rate was much lower than his old one.

But getting a job could wait. He wanted to go outside and walk the streets of London, for it had been two years since he had had the privilege of such a thing. Except, he had no idea where to go.

He didn't really have any friends from his old job to meet up with, and any he'd managed to make had lost contact with him since he'd been at St. Mungo's. He didn't fancy going about by himself, he'd had enough alone time at St. Mungo's, but he couldn't really think of another option.

Althoughhe did have one friend. Audrey Blackhouse, a fellow patient at St. Mungo's. It had started off as civil conversations in the day room, before turning into secret operations to meet each other in the dead of night. Although it wasn't as impressive as Percy always made it out to be; he would sneak out of the male corridor, and she the female corridor, then they would meet in the dayroom. They'd talk for about five minutes before getting tired and going to bed again. But at least it gave him something to do whilst at the hospital, something to look forward to.

It had been a while since he had seen Audrey. She had been discharged three weeks ago, whereas he had only got out last week. He knew her address, she had told him. And she hadn't just told him, she'd written it down on a piece of paper for him, which he fingered in his pocket whenever his fingers had nothing better to do.

He couldn't just turn up at Audrey's house unannounced, that would be horribly rude. He didn't know her number, or even if she had a telephone installed yet, so he couldn't call her. He didn't want to send a letter, as that would take days for them to negotiate a time to meet up, and he wanted to get out of the house _now_.

It was as he fingered the little scrap of paper, probably his most prized possession, that he decided to visit Audrey unannounced.

He didn't really need the scrap of paper, he had memorised it by now. But just touching it always put a smile on his face; when he thought that Audrey had given the address to _him, _to continue their friendship. Friendship, that was the word she had used. His smile turned into a stupid grin.

Percy did not have much experience with friends. There were perhaps one or two people he deigned to be civil with when he was working at the office, but he had never had a proper friendship with them. And before that… well Percy couldn't remember much before working at the office.

He didn't know when it had started, but the longer he worked as an MP, the more he forgot about his family and his childhood. Now, he could barely remember the names of his parents, if he had any at all.

He hadn't told his psychologist at St. Mungo's about it, as that would only prolong his stay there, and he wanted anything but that. And it wasn't like it affected him that much. He was perfectly fine being ignorant about his family, if he even had one.

Audrey had speculated that something horrible had happened, and Percy's subconscious had forced himself to forget it. Percy didn't like to think of it as that. He preferred to think that he was an orphaned only child, and that his parents had died valiantly in the Second World War.

He pushed the theories from his mind as he approached Audrey's flat. The fact that her flat was within walking distance from his own flat might have influenced his decision of the location of his new flat, but it was pure luck, according to Percy.

He rang the doorbell and announced himself over the receiver. She did not buzz him into the flat; as he had hoped, but came down to meet him instead. She gave him a great big hug and promptly dragged him to the pub. He was so pleased about her positive response to his presence that he did not complain about the fact that they were going to a pub, a place Percy could not recall ever associating himself with.

"I'm so glad you've been discharged!" She said as she squeezed his arm. He beamed back at her. "It must be pretty hectic for you, getting a new flat and job and everything. Have you found a job yet? Because I haven't, and I've been searching for three weeks!"

"I've been looking at advertisements in different newspapers, but I haven't found anything that fits my calibre."

Audrey huffed jokingly and put on a very pompous voice, "Of course the stuff in newspapers is only for peasants, Percival Ignatius Weasley deserves the best of the best." She turned to Percy and pointed her nose in the air, looking down at him.

"Oh stop that." He gave her a little shove, "I'm not looking for a job in politics, I'm looking for a more easy-going job that's still an intellectual job, which I have yet to find. And I don't sound like that."

Audrey giggled, "Well good luck, Perce. Beggars can't be choosers, you know."

"I am _not_ begging." Percy retorted as a joke, but was so snobbish that Audrey burst into a fit of laughter. He smiled at her before turning serious.

"What sort of job are you looking for?"

"Anything that's got good pay. I got an interview for a journalist post in a small newspaper; it was yesterday near Portobello Road."

"How did it go?"

She shrugged and abruptly didn't look very pleased. "So-so. It's not a very big firm so I won't be too disappointed if I don't get the job." But she brightened suddenly as she thought of something, "I went to Portobello Market afterwards, and found the prettiest thing, though. You have to see it! I'll show you at the pub, come on!"

She pulled Percy along faster until they were almost running to the pub.

"It was a gold watch," she explained as they hurried, "and I thought it was so pretty that I _had _to buy it, I'll show it to you when we get to the pub, you just have to see it, then you'll understand..."

Percy rolled his eyes at her. "I thought you were trying to save money since you're unemployed?"

She waved him aside, "But you haven't seen it! I couldn't just leave it there, it's real gold, I swear! There was no way I was leaving without it once I saw it!"

Percy looked doubtful but didn't say anything as they entered the pub. He let Audrey order for both of them before choosing a small table.

Audrey fumbled about for the watch as he sipped his beer cautiously. "Look at it, I bet you've never seen anything like it. And I reckon it's really old, because the straps came off as I tried to put it on and it's scratched and dented in a few places, but it makes me feel like I'm holding a family heirloom, passed from generation to generation!" She grinned excitedly as she showed him the clock face.

As soon as he saw the clock face, he choked on his beer.

It really was a beautiful watch; it was completely transparent save the gold backing, so he could see all the silver gears inside it. There were four grooves around the gold rim of the clock face, indicating 12, 3, 6 and 9 although no numbers showed this. The clock hands stood out against the cogs as they were gold. The minute hand had a sun, and the hour hand had a moon on the end. The second hand was very fine but still had a miniscule star on the end, and all three hands sparkled just slightly. It was clearly an old watch, as there were dents and scratches all over it, which did seem to make it more like a family heirloom. But it was not the watch's beauty that caused Percy to choke on his beer.

He had seen that watch before, on the wrist of someone else. A long time ago, when he was a very small child. He had sat on someone's knee and that someone had been wearing that watch and had been explaining to him the importance of it. He could not remember what it was that had been explained, only that it belonged to someone who he trusted and cared about.

"Uncle Fabian." Percy said as he wiped froth away from his face.

"I'm sorry?"

"Uncle Fabian. That watch is my Uncle Fabian's."

Audrey stared at him for a few seconds, frowning. "You're sure of that?"

"Yes, I remember sitting on his knee, and him explaining the importance of that watch. It's most definitely my Uncle Fabian's."

A slow grin spread across her face. "Obviously this has something to do with the gruesome thing that happened to your family!"

"What? No! It was just my uncle's!"

"Of course it was!" Audrey took a large sip of her beer and explained to him, almost giddy with excitement, "it holds some sort of secret that's very important, and clearly someone stole it from your uncle, and then cracked the secret of the watch and murdered him in the most grisly way that your subconscious forced yourself to forget everything that happened so you wouldn't have to live with the vision of the way your uncle died!"

Percy looked uncertain. "Why, then, would I forget my entire childhood and not just the moment when he was killed? Unless my uncle was tortured in front of me for twenty years, I doubt that happened."

Audrey sighed exasperatedly, "Well obviously it holds some kind of important secret, otherwise you wouldn't have remembered it, would you?"

Percy said nothing, but took a gulp of his beer. Audrey sighed at him again, "Just have a little imagination, would you?" She reached into her pocket for the wrist straps and pulled one out, handing it to him.

"Do these ring any more bells?" She asked hopefully. He glanced at the wrist strap, but it didn't bring back any memories.

She dug around in her pocket for the second wrist strap, but before she found it, a gun shot rang out.

The bar went totally silent for about a second, before chaos broke out. Audrey and Percy exchanged a worried look before wordlessly deciding to get out of the bar as quickly as possible.

That was no easy task. People were screaming and running about, and every way Percy turned, he knocked into somebody. He felt as if he was surrounded. Gripping tightly to the clock face and single wrist strap, he shouldered past a group of people into a small but open space behind them.

He would have continued out of the pub, had he not heard a small shout.

"Audrey!" He shouted. He didn't know how he heard her so clearly over the din, but he was grateful for it. He most certainly did not want any harm coming to her.

She appeared in the crowd of people a moment later. "Audrey, are you okay?" Percy shouted at her over the noise, linking his arm with hers so they wouldn't separate.

"I'm fine," she said, pulling him along, "Let's get out of here before anything else happens."

They managed to push past the bulk of the crowd and were soon out of the pub and walking hastily down the street.

"What was going on back there?" Percy murmured to her.

"I don't -" She stopped herself midsentence, and stopped walking entirely causing Percy to jerk forwards as his arm was still linked with hers.

"The watch." She said quietly.

Percy frowned at her. "I've got it here." He showed her the watch and wrist strap he was holding.

Audrey glanced at them before rifling through her pockets. "The second wrist strap, it's gone."

"You probably dropped it in the bar, but we're not going back there now, there's far too much pandemonium for you to find anything, and it's probably unsafe – someone has a gun, for Christ's sake!"

"No," she said firmly and started walking again, slower this time, "I didn't leave it there, someone took it."

"Someone didn't take it, they had no chance! We were alone on a secluded table, I would have seen anyone come near you."

"What about when the gunshot went off? As I was trying to get to you, a load of people sort of crashed into me, and I'm sure it wasn't an accident. I thought he was trying to smack my bum, so I cried out, but then they all went away."

"But he wouldn't want to take a wrist strap!"

"Then why would he go so close to me? He didn't succeed in smacking my bum the first time, so he could easily have had another go in all the chaos, but he went away because he had taken what he came there for. And didn't you notice, the gunshot only went out as soon as I showed the first wrist strap to you."

Percy was disbelieving. "I still think you're just being a little over imaginative."

She glared at him. "I'm not, I'm being deadly serious." She snatched the wrist strap from him and bent down suddenly, as if she were doing her shoelace.

"What are you doing? Your shoes don't have laces." Percy asked her as he slipped the watch into his pocket.

She didn't answer until she had stood up again. "I was hiding it in my sock, so no one else can sneakily take it."

Percy rolled his eyes at her. He was just about to give her a small lecture when he heard someone running towards them from behind. Audrey heard it to, and they both turned around.

A man was racing towards them, heading straight for them. Percy checked in front of them, to see if he was glaring at anyone else. But there was no one within a reasonable distance, as most people were standing around the pub, interested in the commotion there.

He glanced back at the man, then at Audrey. With a little nod, they both started running.

* * *

**Have I successfully reeled you in, are have I failed epically? Do tell!**


	2. The Watch Face

**A/N: This is a fairly long one, but I wasn't sure where to end it, so I kept going until I finally got to a good cut off point. I also think I jump around too much but hopefully it's not as noticeable as I find it. After all, I'm no J.K Rowling, so don't expect anything super... but it can't be that bad all the same. =]**

**Warnings: Mild torture (mild as in, you can get so much worse on this site. And it is only rated T)  
**

**Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter  
**

* * *

**Uncle Fabian's Gold Watch**

**Chapter 2 – The Watch Face**

"Down here, quick!" Audrey pulled Percy down a smaller street and sprinted to the end, where they turned down a quiet street with a few houses on it.

Percy grabbed Audrey's arm instinctively as they ran, and when she didn't shake him off, he tightened his hold.

They reached a high street and ran along it. Audrey checked behind her, to see if they were still being followed, and although she couldn't see anyone chasing her, she didn't count on having lost them.

The road they were on was more crowded, forcing them to jostle and push people out of the way. Percy did his best to not yell back when someone shouted at them rudely; they did have a good reason to be running, or Percy wouldn't be seen dead making such a commotion.

Out of nowhere, someone stepped in front of them, almost tripping them over. Percy was about to push past the stranger, until he caught sight of the malicious smile on his face. He stopped and stared at the man, and probably would have given him enough time to grab him, had Audrey not yanked him across the road.

Several cars screeched to a halt and honked angrily at the pair, but they raced across the road, Audrey mindlessly pulling Percy away from their chasers.

"No! Not down here!" Percy shouted, as he noticed they were about to go down Milk Street. He pulled them both to an abrupt halt and turned around. If they continued down Milk Street, they would eventually pass Love Lane which, contrary to its upbeat name, was such a bad area Percy was more afraid of going down there than being caught by their chasers. And maybe their chasers intended them to head for Love Lane, so he couldn't be too careful.

They made for the high street again except both of them ran in opposite directions, but Percy's grip on Audrey's arm caused them to jolt awkwardly in the middle of the pavement.

Percy was about to impatiently tug Audrey's arm in his direction, when he heard a sickening crack. Audrey was wrenched from his grasp, and when he turned to her, he saw that she had been crudely knocked out cold by a thug wielding some sort of bat.

"Audrey!" His voice sounded strangled and totally helpless, and he was almost glad that she was unable to hear him. That is until something smashed into the back of his head, and for a few seconds he was angry that Audrey had been made to experience such pain before slipping unconscious.

* * *

Percy woke to someone rifling through his pockets. It was not the nicest thing to wake up to, but he couldn't do much about it since his hands were tied together behind his back. He didn't bother opening his eyes, it seemed like far too much work, so he thought he would lean against the person he was tied to and go back to sleep. Audrey, he guessed.

They were tied back to back by their hands. This realization came to Percy along with the fact that he was alarmingly close to Audrey. But he mentally shook himself; he should be focusing on their situation, not the closeness of their proximity. Even if it was close. And even if their closeness made his stomach knot for some reason.

It was harder to get to sleep now that he had woken up, so he stopped trying and forced opened his eyes, blinking himself awake. He could hear people talking around him, but he didn't have the energy to make out what they were saying.

He squinted his eyes, trying to make out what was around him, but it was difficult without his glasses. Not to mention that most of the room was shrouded in darkness, making it harder than it could've been.

He could see blobs of what he presumed were sparsely set out furniture in what seemed like a large room, but he couldn't be too sure where the walls started because it was too dark. There was a dull light bulb hanging above his head which was the only light source in the room, and all it illuminated was himself, Audrey and a few feet around them. The floor he was sitting on was not panelled with wood or carpeted, but plain concrete as if he were in a basement.

He couldn't see anything else around him nor was he bothered to figure out how to free himself from his bonds since his headache prevented him from holding a long and coherent train of thought, so he attempted to go back to sleep again.

His plan worked well for a few minutes, where he was jolted awake by the slamming of a door. It came as such a surprise to him that he jumped and bumped Audrey, who groaned grumpily.

He opened his eyes again and glared into the half darkness around him. Nothing seemed to have changed, except the buzz of voices he heard earlier were now gone. It was then that he realized that he really needed to get out of the basement and he forced himself assess his situation.

He was tied to an unconscious Audrey in someone's basement and his head hurt so much there was no way he could possibly put up a fight. And his glasses were missing, and while it was probably the least of his worries, it made him feel most insecure.

But, he knew his captors wanted the wrist straps (by this point, Percy had begrudgingly admitted to himself that Audrey was probably right) and while one might have been taken back at the pub, the one in Audrey's sock might not have been found yet, hence why they were still held captive.

"Audrey," he said gently, shaking his shoulders slightly so that in turn Audrey was gently shaken. She groaned again and mumbled something. "Wake up!"

His attempts at kindly waking her up were ruined when the door banged open and people came striding in noisily. He could hear Audrey waking up behind him, and rather guiltily realized she was taking far less time to orientate herself than he had.

Three people had entered the room, and they stopped in a line at Percy's side so that both he and Audrey could get a view of them.

"Alright, let's do this quickly. We all want to go home today." The man in the middle announced. Percy couldn't really make out what he looked like because he stood in the shadows of the room.

"The wrist strap." The man on his right produced a wrist strap from Uncle Fabian's watch in his hand. "In your possession, you have the second wrist strap of this watch." The man on his left pulled out the watch face that had been in Percy's pocket.

He suddenly leaned in so that the light bulb illuminated his face. His face wasn't very clear to Percy as he didn't have his glasses, but Percy could tell he had a nasty smirk on his face, which seemed very ugly to Percy, even though it was slightly fuzzy. "Where is it?"

Percy was tongue-tied. He didn't know if he should just hand over the wrist strap and be off, or pretend he knew nothing about it, or give a false location, or just plainly refuse to tell the man where it was. Thankfully, Audrey saved him from answering.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She sounded very defiant as she answered, and she sounded a lot braver than Percy felt.

The man moved so quickly that Percy didn't have time to blink. He heard him slap Audrey across her face, and he could hear Audrey's short intake of breath. Not only that, but he could feel her heart rate practically double.

Now he was scared. "WHERE IS IT?" The man bellowed so close to Audrey's face that Percy could feel his hot breath on the back of his neck.

"We don't know where it is!" Percy shouted before he could stop himself.

He could hear the man straightening himself and approach him. Adrenalin started to pump through him and his hands started to shake behind his back. He hoped Audrey wouldn't judge him for that.

"You don't know where it is, eh?" The man started softly. "Do you mean you lost it?"

Percy was unsure if it was the right thing to say, but went along with it anyway. "Y-y-yes. I dropped it when we were running away."

The man observed him for a moment before suddenly shouting, "LIES!" and punching him in the face.

He saw stars for a few seconds, and the back of his head smacked against Audrey's. That, and the fact that his nose was now streaming with blood, did nothing to help his headache.

"You did not drop it, or we would have seen it!" The man shouted, working himself up into a rage, "All we found in your pockets was this!" He snatched the watch face from the other man and threw it at Percy. It bounced off his chest and onto the floor, where it rolled away out of the spot light. As an afterthought, he added, "And this!" He reached into his own pockets and pulled out Percy's glasses, which he threw at him.

They landed on Percy's chest and fell into his lap. Percy nearly smiled before he remembered his situation – he was starting to miss his glasses, and was so glad to find that they weren't even broken that it stopped his hands from shaking.

"SO WHERE IS IT?" Percy didn't bother answering and prepared himself for another blow, however it never came.

The man that had been holding the watch face stepped forward into the light, and although Percy couldn't make out his facial features, he could make out the blurry outline of a bat, which he was tapping menacingly in the palm of his hand.

Percy flinched involuntarily. The last time he had seen a bat, it had knocked him unconscious. His throbbing head reminded him of that only too well.

There was silence for about half a minute, where Percy's main tormentor seemed to be contemplating using the bat. "Leave him, Nott. We'll leave them time to think over it."

With that all three of them left the basement with a bang and a clang of the lock being turned.

Percy let out a breath of air he hadn't realised he was holding. For nearly three minutes, both of them leant against each other, breathing heavily.

"We should untie ourselves." Audrey suggested, to which Percy readily agreed. They fumbled about the rope binding their hands together.

It was just a single rope that tied most of their arms and hands together and to each other, and after craning their necks and a bit of cooperation from both of them, they had the rope off.

Percy cleaned his glasses on his shirt and slipped them on. Then, he pressed his sleeve against his nose in an attempt to stop the bleeding, and as it had mostly clotted already, it didn't take long. He wiped away any blood on his face on his sleeve, feeling incredibly dirty and ill-mannered as he did so.

When he had finished cleaning himself up, Audrey handed him the watch face. "That was really brave, Perce."

The comment surprised him, but was not unwelcome. "You think so?"

"I thought you were going to crack when the man with the bat stepped forward and just stood there menacingly for ages, but you held your tongue. That was pretty brave." She smiled at him.

Percy smiled back, marvelling at how pretty she looked when she smiled, even if he could see hand marks from where their interrogator had slapped her. "Do you still have the wrist strap?" he suddenly asked.

"Yup. Still in my sock, but let's look at it when we get out of this place. It gives me the creeps."

The door, of course, was locked. But that was not a problem for Percy. "All we need is a paperclip, or a hairpin," he explained to Audrey, "and I can pick the lock."

Audrey gave him one of her hairpins, and in less than ten seconds the basement door was unlocked. They crept out and tiptoed up some stairs which lead to a rather fancy looking corridor.

The floor was heavily carpeted with a green carpet that was so soft it covered up the noise of their footsteps. There was only one way to go, and it was towards the end of the corridor where a thin, winding staircase was waiting for them.

"Where _did _you learn that, Percy?" Audrey whispered to him as they treaded softly down the corridor.

"Oh, I caught my brothers trying to learn-" he stopped himself as he realised he was remembering something.

"Go on, go on!" Audrey encouraged him excitedly.

"My brothers, they slept in the room next to mine, and once during the night I heard them making a lot of noise, so I barged into their room to investigate and found them jangling a padlock and trying to figure out how to pick the lock. Naturally, I confiscated the set of instructions someone had given them, no doubt some joker in school with them, and the padlock and hairpins they had."

"Oh," Audrey seemed disappointed. "That's a little mean."

"Well they were my brothers, I couldn't have them learning such underhand techniques, and it's not fitting for a gentleman. But soon my curiosity got the better of me and I followed the instructions, which proved to be quite useful."

Audrey laughed quietly. "You little hypocrite."

Percy grinned sheepishly. "I couldn't help it. Ignorance is a crime."

"But this is picking a lock!"

Percy shrugged his shoulders. They ascended the staircase quietly. "I'm just like that."

Once at the top of the stairs, Audrey checked both ways before fully revealing herself at the top of the staircase.

It looked like they were in a corridor of a particularly dingy flat carpeted with the most expensive carpet. It was an odd mix.

The walls may have been pristine white years ago, but now it was peeling and there was so much dirt and dust all over the walls, it looked absolutely filthy.

Once again, there was only one way for them to go. There were a few doors leading off from the corridor, and upon checking them, they found a wine cellar full of hundreds and hundreds of the most expensive wines Percy had ever seen. They also found a bedroom and two walk-in pantries, stocked to the brim with all sorts of food. Percy now thought they were in the servants' kitchens of some ridiculously huge mansion.

They knew that it would be wiser to get as far away from this place as possible, but a quick glance at each other, and a double check around making sure the coast was clear, they locked themselves in one of the pantries and gorged themselves on all the food that didn't need cooking.

Cereals, nuts, tinned peaches, tinned apricots, tinned pineapple, salt cured meat, preserved fish, passion fruit puree, pickled onions, pickled leeks, biscuits, beans, chocolates, sweets, you name it. They made tinned tuna sandwiches, tinned sardine sandwiches, anchovy sandwiches, chocolate spread sandwiches, meat floss sandwiches, all without butter or margarine, much to Percy's intense disapproval.

With the cans of condensed milk and cartons of soya milk and coconut milk, they were able to have cold chocolate drinks, cold tea (although Percy refused to drink any on the grounds that he was British and could not drink tea prepared without water), cold instant coffee or just plain milk (except Percy wouldn't have that either – the condensed milk was far too sweet and the soya milk and coconut milk wasn't to Percy's palette). They also had apple and orange juice from concentrate (while Percy screwed up his nose at the carton of juice, he drank it anyway) and they used measuring cups meant for the rice, flour and wheat as drinking cups.

Audrey wanted to get some wine as well, but Percy could not allow her, pointing out that the alcohol would only dull their senses when they were meant to be hyper-alert, not to mention that they already had sore heads. And they didn't have proper wine glasses, so they effect of it would be missed.

Once they had eaten far more than they needed, they shoved their rubbish under one of the shelves and crept out.

They reached the end of the corridor and had the choice of going up the stairs or through the kitchen. They chose the kitchen, as they noticed a back door leading outside.

When they stepped outside, the first thing Percy noticed was how clean the air was. The second thing was how dark it was.

"What time is it?" He asked. He fumbled for Uncle Fabian's watch face, but the cogs weren't spinning anymore.

"No idea, but must be around two or three o'clock in the morning."

They walked further out and looked around them. The grounds were huge. At first they thought they were walking in public gardens, until they reached a tall brick wall which made them realise that the entire grounds belonged to the owner of the mansion.

Audrey whistled quietly. "That is one rich bastard."

Unable to climb over the wall, they felt along the wall until they reached the front gates. The locks on the gates were far stronger than the one on the basement door, so they had to climb over it instead.

As Percy climbed over, he caught sight of the design at the centre of the gate, an overlapping _MM_. It stirred some memories, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember what it meant. He forgot about it soon after he jumped over.

"We're in the countryside." Audrey said after following the path from the mansion that led to the main road.

"Observation points," Percy responded dryly.

"Very helpful Percy. How are we going to get out of here?"

They stopped at the junction between the slip road leading to the mansion and the main road. "We could walk for a bit a see if we find a town."

Audrey gave him a look as if to ask 'is that all you can do?' Percy glared at her. "Do you have any better suggestions?"

Audrey rolled her eyes. "Alright, I suppose it's the best we've got."

Unsure which way to go, they made a guess and headed right, guided only by moonlight.

"What day is it today?" Percy abruptly asked.

Audrey thought for a moment. "Probably Saturday. I don't think we were unconscious for more than half a day."

Percy sighed. "I have an appointment with my psychologist on Sunday at three o'clock. I hope we're in time for it."

Audrey stared at him before bursting into a fit of laughter. "Is that seriously your biggest priority?"

Percy looked self-conscious. "Well, I promised him I'd be there. It's awfully rude to just not turn up."

"What about how to get home? What if we don't find civilisation and we starve to death?"

Percy looked as if he'd contemplated that for the first time. "Well that's a point, but then I'd have a good excuse for not being able to go."

Audrey just smiled, shaking her head. They walked in a comfortable silence after that, both too tired to talk much.

After about half an hour of walking, they came across a bus shelter. "We could wait for a bus."

"At half past two in the morning?" Percy asked her sceptically.

"Anything but more walking. I think I might collapse if I do anymore, and all that food has made me so sleepy."

"Are you suggesting we go to sleep in a bus stop?"

"Yes," she replied simply.

"But what if the people from the mansion look for us? We can't have walked that far, and they probably have about fifteen cars, so it shouldn't be too hard to find us."

Audrey honestly couldn't believe her ears. The Percy Weasley she knew would jump at any opportunity to stop doing any form of exercise. "Percy, do you want to rest or not? We aren't going to find another shelter for miles, I bet."

Percy didn't answer, contemplating on her point. "But all our efforts would have been entirely wasted if we get caught the next morning before we've even woken up!"

Audrey took a step closer to the bus shelter, determined to have her way. "Percy, we're sleeping outside. The rising sun will wake us up at some ungodly hour; we'll be up before they've noticed we've gone!"

When Percy didn't answer for a while, Audrey took it upon herself to drag him to the bus shelter and squish him in the corner. He didn't seem to resist, but it did seem he had too much pride to actually say that he agreed to sleeping in a bus shelter. On the floor.

They huddled together in the corner of the shelter, but it was still cold and they both shivered. "Five miles to Dorset." Percy said randomly.

"I'm sorry?"

"The sign on the bus stop. It says five miles to Dorset. It says Wiltshire as well. We're in Wiltshire."

"Where's that?"

"South-west England. Near Devon. And Dorset."

"Well that's comforting."

Percy smiled. "I know." After a long pause he asked, "Can we look at the wrist strap now?"

Audrey sighed in an annoyed fashion, she was just getting comfortable, but she toed off her shoe and peeled off her sock.

"Why would anyone want this?" Percy wondered aloud as Audrey passed it to him.

Audrey shrugged her shoulders lazily. With only moonlight for him to see, Percy started to finger the wrist strap more than examine it, and very soon he felt something quite strange.

"Audrey, how could you possibly not have noticed this?"

Her interest piqued, she opened her eyes that had drifted shut and glanced at what Percy was showing her.

"Words stencilled onto the underside of the strap. Obviously they hold a clue, and you missed it all!"

Audrey took the wrist strap from him without saying anything and felt along the stencilled words. "I didn't really check for anything, so I guess I missed it."

"But what about when you put the watch on!" Percy was incredibly annoyed and confused at how anyone could be so blind.

"Well they came off as soon as I tried to put it on, and I didn't really use the wrist straps after that, except to show you."

"Hm, right." He sounded very unimpressed.

Desperate to change the topic, she angled the wrist strap towards the moonlight and read the words. "'The Grim has reached the Twelfth Place'. What do you think that means?"

Percy had been hoping it would trigger a memory recall, like when he first saw the watch, but unfortunately it did no such thing. He had no idea what it meant.

He wanted to growl in frustration, but didn't have the energy to do so. The night's debacle had taken its toll on him, and he was getting tired. He really couldn't be bothered to think about what the inscription on the wrist strap meant, and by looking at Audrey's closed eyes, he didn't think she did either. He would ponder on the mystery in the morning. If their pursuers didn't find them.

With a shiver, Audrey leaned her head against his shoulder. The arm that Percy hadn't even realised had snaked around her shoulder tightened. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

**A/N: So how do you like it? No prizes for whoever guesses whose mansion they were held captive at, it's just too easy. But I can give you a hug all the same=]**


	3. The Watch Hand

**A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the long update, I've been really busy and have had writer's block. Not a good combo.**

**In case anyone is wondering, yes you can get two bus tickets, a croissant and a cup of coffee for (less than) £5, in 1962 anyway. Also I apologize if anyone thinks this bit was done tackily, because I sort of agree with you.  
**

* * *

**Uncle Fabian's Gold Watch  
**

**Chapter 3 – The Watch Hand**

The rays of the early morning sun woke Percy up. If he hadn't been quite so stiff, or so cold, he would have found the wake up quite an enjoyable experience. However, he shivered instead and groaned while shaking Audrey off him.

Audrey slowly stood up and stretched her legs. She stuffed her hands under her armpits and stamped her feet in an attempt to get some warmth into her. Percy was crossed with the temptation to huddle against her for warmth like penguins did, but reminded himself that she was an ex-patient at St. Mungo's and so he probably shouldn't do anything too startling.

He looked at the sign outside the bus shelter. "We're half a mile from Berwick St. John and four miles from Donhead St. Andrew." He told Audrey.

"When's the first bus?"

"It says 0850. It's probably around half six now, so we're not waiting for a bus. Anyway, neither of us have any money for the fare."

Audrey sighed tiredly. "Alright," she said after a pause, "we'll walk. Which way to the one that's half a mile away?"

Percy looked at the road. He could only guess that it was a one way road, as there were vague groves for a single set of wheels. But he had no idea which direction it went in. And there was no way he was telling Audrey that. Damn his appalling sense of direction!

"This way!" He cried, sounding sure of himself, and set off in the opposite direction of the mansion.

"Are you sure?" Audrey asked him, looking carefully at him.

"Definitely." Percy assured her and continued to walk in his chosen direction.

They walked for about twenty minutes in complete silence before Audrey finally stated, "You had no idea which way to go, did you?"

Percy didn't answer at first, gripping on to his pride with slipping fingers. "No." He finally admitted.

Audrey laughed. Percy smiled despite himself. "You always had no sense of direction."

Percy frowned. That was uncalled for. "What makes you think that?"

"More than once I saw, or heard, of your trips to the female corridor. Did you get lost?" She asked him in a mock-patronising fashion, before changing her tone to a suspicious one, "or were you spying on someone?"

Percy spluttered indignantly. "What are you suggesting? I would never…" he was too embarrassed to finish his sentence, so he continued as if he'd never said it, "I was not lost! I am not that incapable that I would get lost at St. Mungo's!" Audrey only laughed. He patiently waited for her to finish before quietly telling her, "I was hiding."

"From the nurses?"

"Yes, they were trying to give me a bath. On normal circumstances I would have relished in the opportunity for a bath, but one particular nurse, Bertha, always made my bath times unpleasant."

Audrey burst into a fit of laughter. "It's not funny!" He told her crossly, "she was always so demeaning; I can wash my own hair, but she always washed it for me. And she was so rough! That woman, she scratched the skin off my scalp! And she used the shower head to rinse away the shampoo! Shouldn't she know, me being one of her patients and all, that I really despise the use of shower heads whilst in the bath? You either have one or the other, not both!"

Audrey could hardly walk, she was laughing so much. Percy, still ranting, continued, "This is serious, it's not a laughing matter! Louis and Isla knew perfectly well; they let me wash my own hair and always rinsed it in the bath water, why can't she?"

"I'm sure," Audrey managed between fits of laughter, "I'm sure you could have just told her…"

"No! You won't believe it! I told her at least a thousand times, but she _never_ listened! She was out to get me, I'm certain!"

That sent Audrey off into another fit. "Oh Perce! You're priceless!"

In all honesty, Percy couldn't see what was so 'priceless' about him. He pursed his lips and glared at the surrounding fields.

"Really Percy, don't tell me you weren't joking?" Audrey giggled.

"No!" he snapped, "I was not joking. You don't know how much it infuriates me!"

"Okay, okay, keep your hair on!" Audrey stifled her giggles and tried to console him, "It doesn't matter anymore; you don't live at St. Mungo's. You can have a bath all by yourself and no one will stop you. If you want to have dinner at two in the morning, then you do that. No need to hide from Bertha."

Percy stared at her curiously, and then smiled. "Yes. You're right. No Bertha to mess up my meals, either. You know she used to cut my food for me? After months of pleaded, she finally relented, but even then it wasn't great. She never gave me sweet corn, always corn on the cob. No matter how many times I told her that I don't like the mess corn on the cob causes when you eat it, she just wouldn't listen! I then had to waste five minutes scraping all the corn off, and the whole inconvenience could have been avoided if she'd just give me sweet corn! "

Sensing another rant coming up, Audrey hastily came up with something to distract him, "Listen, Perce, forget about Bertha. Think about the Grim."

"The Grim? Not _that_ silly bit of superstition? Surely you don't believe in the Grim?"

"Don't you remember?" Percy looked at her with a confused expression. "Come on, you numpty, what are we here for? The wrist straps? Ring any bells?"

"Oh right! The Grim which has reached the Twelfth Place!" Percy finally realised.

"Yes, that! Now, do you have any ideas as to what it's about?"

"Not a clue. I don't think the 'Grim' it refers to is the actual Grim, the one that goes about killing people, but maybe it's a reference to someone my uncle used to know?"

"Then what's all this Twelfth Place stuff about?"

"I don't know. Maybe this 'Grim' character was twelfth in some kind of league table?" Percy suggested.

"But that's far too vague. There are millions of league tables out there, it could be for anything."

"Maybe that's the point, it's vague so that only the people concerned know what it's talking about. So when people like the ones in the mansion try to look for it, they won't understand it."

Audrey frowned in thought. "Well we are missing the other wrist strap, and that probably has something important on it that goes with this one. Maybe we need both to figure this thing out."

Percy didn't answer. They continued to walk in quiet, occasionally shivering when the wind blew too hard.

Slowly the fields around them turned into houses with porches and backyards; and soon they were on a high street.

It was still early and none of the shops had opened yet, so it wasn't very busy. The wandered about aimlessly at first, having half forgotten what they needed to do, before Percy decided to get some structure into their day.

"Alright, first, we should find a police station-" he was cut off.

"A police station?"

"The police will deal with the thugs at the mansion. They also might know a thing or two about the wrist straps, and why they're so sought after."

Audrey just looked at him. "Are you stupid? The police won't do anything. We've got no proof, apart from a few bruises, to show that anything went on in that mansion. And anyway, you saw how big the mansion was, whoever owns it must be so rich, it wouldn't surprise me if he or she has already bought most of the local police anyway."

Percy frowned at her. He was not used to this point of view of the police, but something deep inside him told him that she was right. Not only would the police not be able to help, but they probably wouldn't want to either. He scrapped the idea and continued.

"Okay, well we should find a bank next. We can withdraw some money to buy breakfast. Then we can ask for some directions to the nearest train station and get a train back to London. Does that sound good?"

"Don't you think we should try and crack the code on the wrist strap first?"

Percy paused. He hadn't really factored the wrist strap in when he thought up the day's plan. "We haven't really got any leads on it, and maybe it would be better to start where we found it, back in Portobello Market."

Audrey didn't seem to like the idea, but nodded anyway.

Percy looked at her. "Is the wrist strap really that important to you?"

Audrey seemed reluctant to answer. "Well I'd have thought you'd be more interested in it than I am. It seems to me as if it's the key to unlocking your past."

Percy was silent for a moment. "Audrey, there was a reason why my brain chose for me to forget my past. I've come to accept that maybe some things were meant to be forgotten."

With that he stalked away, leaving Audrey to slowly follow after him.

They did eventually find a bank, a Bank of England bank. "I can't withdraw from here, I'm only with HSBC." Audrey told Percy, "I'll wait for you in this farmer's market."

She was about to go down the street with the farmer's market when Percy stopped her. "But I can't either! I'm with HSBC too!"

Audrey raised an eyebrow at him. "You're not with Bank of England?" he shook his head. "Huh, I'd always thought you'd be…"

Percy frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

Audrey shrugged. "Well you _did_ work for parliament." Percy only narrowed his eyes. "What other banks are you with?"

"Just HSBC." Both of Audrey's eyebrows rose in surprise this time. "What? I'm not made of money, you know." He said rather stiffly as he pushed his glasses up his nose.

Audrey shot him a confused look, but he turned towards the bank. She brushed it off as something from earlier when she had commented on his past.

"Where are you going?" She asked after she had caught up with him.

"I was going to ask if they knew where we could find an HSBC."

_We? _Audrey thought to herself. _Since when did we become we? _Although it was a surprise, it wasn't unwelcome.

The receptionist kindly informed them there was only one bank at a town as small as Donhead St. Andrew, and that they should really be surprised to find a bank here at all. The nearest train station was in the next town, Semley, which was about three miles from here.

We could always walk, he thought to himself, but quickly dropped the idea, tired of walking already. It would be far quicker if they got a bus, and they were trying to escape.

"I have just had an epiphany," Audrey said as they exited the bank. Percy looked at her expectantly, "We get a bus to Semley, -"

"Yes, genius, we get a bus to Semley. As if I couldn't work that out myself." Percy replied rolling his eyes.

"No, wait, I haven't finished! We need money for the fair, and since we can't get anything from the bank, I have a perfect plan."

Percy stared at her curiously. "You see that farmer's market?" Percy nodded slowly, "Well you see how precariously they keep their money…"

Percy's eyes widened in disbelief. "No, Audrey, no! We can't _steal_, that's against the law!"

Audrey frowned impatiently, "Sod the law, I'm pretty certain kidnapping and locking up unsuspecting civilians is against the law too. It's time we got our own back."

"But not on these people!" Percy nearly shouted, earning him a few stares. He started again, softer, "They're innocent; they had nothing to do with this whole… thing."

"Honestly Percy, it'll only be a few pounds. If we take a little from each they won't even notice! Come on, you do the distracting and I'll do the stealing." Even though he struggled, she was still able to drag him along towards the farmer's market.

He hardly had any time to prepare something before he was shoved in front of one of the sellers. He turned around, but Audrey was nowhere to be seen. Turning back, he found the seller looking at him peculiarly.

He glanced down out what was on the table and pretended to be browsing. No one else was there, and the seller's entire attention seemed to be on him. He walked a little further down the table, away from the main part where he guessed money was kept, hoping the seller would follow him.

Thankfully he did, and after wiping his sweating hands on his trousers, he picked up some bananas. "Are these organic?"

The seller raised an eyebrow. "What do you think?"

"Uh, well…" Percy stammered; he hadn't really been expecting that, "one can never be too sure."

Percy could see him trying to hide a smirk. "Yes, they are organic."

"Ah, well that's good. The chemicals in pesticides can potentially destroy the nutrients in the fruit, or vegetable," he swallowed and his heart began to pump heavily, "so eating genetically modified crops could potentially be unhealthy." That bit wasn't entirely true, but he could dwell on that later.

The seller only stared at him, slightly startled by Percy's sudden lecture. "Although organic crops can sometimes be subject to mutations, which can destroy an entire batch. It can be a real shame for the farmer, who can tend to crops without realising that they are mutated until they are harvested, although usually it's easy to spot the mutated ones early on. Have you ever come across mutated crops?" At this point, he could see Audrey rummaging through the seller's things someway behind them. Percy's heart sped up, and he had to resist the urge to breathe through his mouth.

"Are you going to buy the bananas or not?"

"Ah, I… actually, um…" Percy was fighting for something else to say. If he lost the man's attention, then he would surely turn around and see Audrey. "I thought I saw some mutated fruits here!"

The man froze and fixed a cold stare at Percy."Where?"

He snatched a fruit closest to him. "This apple! Look, it has a disfigured lump; I just thought I should warn you before you sell it to anyone-"

Percy's babbling was cut off by the cool voice of the seller. "That is a bruise."

Percy stared at the apple. _Thank God it did have some blemish. It would have been worse if it was a normal apple._ "Oh… well, it is a bruised one. Just saying. Customers generally aren't pleased with bruised fruit."

He quickly left, the seller giving him that peculiar stare from earlier. He walked as briskly as he could without running and headed away from the market, back towards the bank.

Someone grabbed him from behind and, thinking it was the seller, he desperately tried to shake them off before realising it was only Audrey.

He heaved a huge sigh of relief. "I can't believe I let you put me through that." She only grinned, holding a fiver.

"Five pounds! Audrey! I thought you said a couple of pounds, not five!" Percy's eyes were wide with shock.

"Hey, a fiver's nothing. He won't even notice. Come on, let's do the fish seller at the other end."

"No!" Percy shouted, stopping himself as a few people stared at him. "We've got enough for two bus tickets, there's no point in putting ourselves in more danger than we've already been through."

Audrey seemed reluctant to agree with him but much to Percy's surprise, she did so anyway. Audrey had always seemed like a stubborn person who fought to get her way, and he honestly didn't see why she agreed with him, even though she clearly enjoyed the thrill of stealing (he was loathe to think of what Audrey had been like in her teenage years). Which brought a question to his mind; why did she care so much about his past? It's not as if it matters to her...

Shaking the thought off, they purchased bus tickets at the post office and spent the remaining money on a croissant and a cup of coffee, Audrey opting for the former and Percy the latter.

Upon reaching Semley, there was an HSBC for both of them to withdraw money and acquire train tickets back to King's Cross.

It was before midday when they were sitting on a heated train, Percy comfortably leaning against the window with Audrey sitting next to him, examining the wrist strap.

"Twelfth Place…" Audrey muttered under her breathe as she broke off another piece of the chocolate bar she had bought at the train shop.

Percy didn't say anything. He stared at Audrey. The question from earlier was still nagging him. Why was she doing this? Why was it that Percy was the one who was about to drop off against the window (despite it nearly being noon), and Audrey the one that was frowning as she tried her hardest to crack the code? Why did she care so much?

She was such a great person to be around, she never got grumpy no matter what happened (_and believe you me, the inmates at St. Mungo's know how to make anyone's blood boil)_, she was a naturally cheerful person, well at least towards the end of her stay at St. Mungo's, and she could make you feel better without even speaking.

On the other hand, Percy was easily grumpy and, although he hated admitting it, horribly arrogant and pompous. And he'd always been like that, St Mungo's or not, that much he remembered. The only reason Audrey had ever bothered with him at St. Mungo's in the first place was because she was so extravert she could talk to anybody without feeling awkward, something that Percy suffered terribly from.

Audrey looked expectantly at him. _What? Did she ask me a question? What do I say…?_

Audrey sat up straight and stared at Percy peculiarly. She didn't but only leaned her head forwards, still looking at him expectantly.

At loss at what to say, Percy sat up too and stared at her. For a few seconds they stayed like that, staring at each other intently.

Percy slowly leaned forwards, and before he knew what he was doing, he kissed her.

He didn't move, frozen in place by her lips. He stared into her eyes, practically merged into one because they were so close, and waited for her response.

But she didn't give any.

So, Percy took the liberty. He slowly moved his lips, trying to find the place where they clicked together the most comfortably. He could feel he was so close to finding it, but he never seemed to reach it. Subconsciously, his tongue flashed across Audrey's lips, and she made her first response – by opening her mouth.

Percy's eyes fluttered shut as their kiss deepened. Percy wasn't the only one moving, Audrey was doing this move with her tongue that made Percy's eyes roll beneath their lids.

"Ahem. Tickets, please."

They jumped apart, Percy blushing bright red, and fumbled for their tickets. The ticket inspector punched them and handed them back before walking off.

Out of the corner of his eye, Percy flicked her a glance. She was staring at him, and he was locked into place by her gaze. Silence stretched between them.

* * *

**You like? Then review!**


	4. The Watch Gears

**A/N: This is shorter than most of mine, but hopefully just as good (if not better :P) and doesn't really resolve any of the Percy/Audrey situation, but we've solved more of the mystery, so it's sort of fair =]**

**Disclaimer: Don't own HP  
**

* * *

**Uncle Fabian's Gold Watch**

**The Watch Gears**

_"Ahem. Tickets, please."_

_They jumped apart, Percy blushing bright red, and fumbled for their tickets. The ticket inspector punched them and handed them back before walking off._

_Out of the corner of his eye, Percy flicked her a glance. She was staring at him, and he was locked into place by her gaze. Silence stretched between them._

* * *

"I… I'm sorry. I didn't mean…" Percy's sentence died away as he saw her turn away.

The atmosphere became very thick, and Percy found it hard to breathe. He turned away from Audrey, squashing himself against the window. If Percy hadn't been such a socially awkward person, he might have demanded an answer out of Audrey, be it positive or negative.

However, Percy didn't a have a way with words, particularly when it came to talking to girls. He rested his head against the window instead and shut his eyes. _What was I thinking? I am such a… prat._

Next to him, Audrey picked up the wrist strap that had fallen on the floor whilst they were preoccupied and concentrated on cracking the code, keeping all thoughts about Percy out of her head. Considering the whole code was about Percy's family, it was quite difficult.

They didn't speak until they had left King's Cross station, and even then it was Audrey who started. "So, we should go to Portobello Market, right?"

Percy nodded weakly. His nap on the train had done nothing to distil the awkwardness between the two, and he wasn't sure how they would be able work together when he could hardly look at her.

Audrey sighed. "Why don't we take a break from this?"

"What do you mean?" He averted his eyes.

"You remember how alcohol was forbidden at St. Mungo's?" Audrey asked him in a sly manner.

"Yes…" he nodded his head slowly, but muttered almost inaudibly, "God knows what trouble you would have caused if you got drunk in the dayroom."

"You don't even know what I'm like when I'm drunk!"

"Yes, but judging from how alarmingly keen you are on stealing from a bunch of farmers, I have a pretty good idea." Percy told her rather haughtily, having resorted to pompousness in a moment of indecision at what to say without being awkward.

Audrey rolled her eyes, not really sure whether to take him seriously or not. "Okay, let's put that idea to the test." She dragged him to the pub which she had subtly been approaching.

She sat him at a table and started light; just a few beers for both of them – to get them to relax. It worked pretty well; Percy came to the conclusion that acting as if nothing had happened on the train seemed to be the best option, and Audrey seemed to be doing the same thing.

"Yes, I'm sure I want some!" Percy snapped at the bartender, who was looking at him dubiously.

Audrey giggled as the bartender replied with a sigh, "If you _really_ want to…"

Two shots of vodka were placed on the table for them, and Audrey downed hers almost immediately. Percy watched her in fascination, already tipsy from the previous beers. It didn't seem to affect her badly, so he thought he'd have a go. A big mistake, he later found out as he choked on it.

Audrey only laughed and ordered some more.

"It burns!" Percy cried, but reached for his second glass anyway. Audrey chuckled and knocked back her shot as if it were water. Percy tried to copy her, and while it ended up better than his first time, he only made himself look incredibly stupid.

But Percy laughed with Audrey anyway – he knew he wasn't doing very well with the vodka and didn't mind. If he had his wits about him, he would have realised that, to a bystander, he and Audrey were creating a drunken scene at only three in the afternoon. And Percy get ridiculously drunk? Well, that was high on his 'Things never to do' list.

"They've got a new brand of whiskey, it's called Fire Whiskey. Wanna try some?" She pushed the shot of whiskey to him. "Don't worry, I've got some beer for you to wash it down with." The bartender placed two beers on the counter.

He looked at the whiskey carefully, having been made cautious by the vodka. Audrey picked up her shot and gulped it one sip. "Come on, Perce. You don't want to be beaten by a girl, do you?"

Plucking up his courage, he tipped the glass back. And promptly spluttered everywhere. Audrey burst into fits of laughter. "Alright," he grinned stupidly after gulping down some beer and wiping his watering eyes, "that thing's not beating me. I'm having some more."

She asked for four shots, and after the bartender sending her an uncertain glance, brought them to the table."Let's have a race!"

Percy knew he was going to lose, but that didn't stop him from trying. He managed the first one, but ended up spitting out more than he swallowed of the second one. Audrey could hardly breathe for laughing.

"You are such a lightweight!" She gasped between fits of laughter.

"Don't you start," Percy choked out, "Charlie never gave me the end of it!"

"Who's Charlie?"

"My brother," Percy said as if it were nothing.

Audrey sobered up suddenly. "Tell me more."

"What?"

"Tell me all about your brother!" Audrey was getting excited.

"Well he's four years older than me and…" his mind was foggy and he didn't seem to realise that he was recounting things which he previously had forgotten. "He lived at The Burrow like all of us, um…"

"What's The Burrow?"

"The Burrow's the name of my childhood home." Percy suddenly started laughing, but Audrey wasn't having any of it. She shook him impatiently in an attempt to sober him up.

"Tell me more."

"Hmm…" Percy took a while to gather his thoughts. "The Burrow!" he suddenly shouted, "garden gnomes!" He giggled so violently that beer splashed down his front.

"Come on Percy. Concentrate." She took the beer away from him. "Did something horrific ever happen? Something that made you want to forget it ever happened?"

He looked at her as if he were genuinely considering her question. "School," he nodded his head seriously, "everyone there was so stupid. I think they thought it wasn't cool to be clever." He tried to grab his beer back, but Audrey only pulled away. "I always got teased, by a bunch of… arseholes." He started tittering at his choice of word, and Audrey waited patiently for him to calm down. "Just like my two younger brothers, who were both little… shits." Again he started laughing, this time falling off his chair.

Audrey helped him back up. "Keep talking," she urged.

"Hm, what? Oh right, Fred and George. Ungrateful little wretches! They should be thankful to me, I looked after them at 12 Grimmauld Place when Mum and Dad were out… and the Nazis were on the doorstep!" He seemed to find this incredibly funny.

"Nazis?" Audrey asked.

Percy stopped talking and looked at her. Then he burst out laughing again, before falling unconscious.

* * *

If Percy thought he had a headache when he woke up in the basement of the mansion, he was wrong. Never had his head hurt so much as he woke up in the backroom of the pub.

He stood up suddenly, which only made things worse, but he was determined to find the bathroom. He managed to relieve himself first, before rushing to the toilets and vomiting up his stomach.

Feeling not much better, he left the bathroom to find Audrey, who was washing up in the kitchen. She didn't seem happy.

"You just had to fall unconscious, didn't you?" She growled at him as she scrubbed some glasses clean. "I had to help wash up or I would have had to carry you back home, which I was not about to do."

Percy barely registered her anger. "What did I do?" He mumbled as he took one of Audrey's freshly cleaned glasses and filled it with water.

"You got wasted on nothing, because you're such a lightweight." Audrey muttered resentfully before adding, "But the good thing is, you remember a lot of your past, and we've finally cracked the code to the wrist strap!"

"We did?"

"Well you sort of remembered everything, and I put two and two together. You said you used to look after your younger brothers at 12 Grimmauld Place when your parents were out-"

"I did? But I don't even know if I have brothers…"

"Yes, well you seemed to remember when you were drunk, but now the code on the wrist strap makes perfect sense! The Grim, being Grimmauld, has reached the Twelfth, being house number 12, Place. It has to be Grimmauld Place because there's no other street name that starts in Grim and ends in Place, I checked in someone's A to Z."

Percy frowned. "So really the wrist strap is just telling us a location?"

"Yes, but a secret location! You said something about Nazis, so I presume that to get them off their trail, instead of saying 'We meet at 12 Grimmauld Place' they'd say 'We meet at Fabian's wrist strap' or something to that effect."

Percy nodded his head slowly, sipping his water. "Yeah, that makes sense…"

* * *

It was after midnight when they arrived at 12 Grimmauld Place, but neither seemed to mind; they were both quite excited about what was in the building.

The door wasn't double locked and although Percy tried incessantly to unlock it with one of Audrey's hairpins, they ended up kicking it open.

There was a musty smell inside the house. Percy reckoned it hadn't been cleaned in years. He was also rather disappointed to note that entering the house hadn't triggered any memories, like when he first saw his uncle's watch.

They searched the entire house, but found nothing of interest. There were no photos, except for the old portraits of important looking figures hanging on the walls. There were bedrooms, but they only had thinly set furniture – no possession, clothes, photos, nothing at all. While the house hadn't been cleaned for a while, it looked as if it hadn't been used for even longer. There was no trace of someone having lived there at all.

They came across the drawing room, which had an odd tapestry on the wall.

"The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black," Percy read out. It was clearly a family tree, and it was very ornate.

"This Black character certainly knew how to spend his money," Audrey commented.

"Yes," Percy muttered, "but some names and faces have been burnt off. Don't you think that's a bit of a waste?"

Audrey shrugged and moved to the next room, but Percy stayed and examined the tapestry closer. _Cygnus Black and Druella Rosier had a daughter named Narcissa Black, who married Lucius Malfoy…_

"Malfoy Manor!" Percy suddenly shouted. "That's where we were kept!"

Audrey came back to the drawing room. "What are you on about?"

"Look," he pointed at the picture of Lucius Malfoy on the tapestry, "that name rings so many bells in my head. Remember the place in Wiltshire? The gate had two Ms on it: Malfoy Manor. And I distinctly remember that Malfoy wasn't a good person, so of course he would use the dirtiest of methods to get what he wants!"

Audrey thought for a moment. "Then why would he want the wrist straps? I'm sure he knows that the wrist straps tell the location of this place, but since he's got a face on the family tree tapestry, one would think he already knows the address…"

Audrey had a point. From what he said in his drunken stupor, he had clearly stayed here for at least a short period of time, and since Malfoy's face was on the family tree, he probably had too… But something wasn't adding up. Whatever Audrey said, the name Malfoy still sent shivers down his spine. Then there were the burnt out faces and names; he was sure that they were important, but he didn't know what for.

* * *

_The door slammed, and Percy flinched. He clutched at Fred tighter. Where were they supposed to go? Under the bed? He quickly dropped that idea; the last time he used it, they had almost been caught, not to mention Ron wouldn't stop crying._

_He caught sight of the wardrobe. Alice Longbottom used this room, along with her husband, and she had loads of furry coats._

_As quietly as he could, he prised open the wardrobe door, pushing Fred in first before following in himself. He sat them both down so they were leaning against the back of the wardrobe, behind all the coats and other dresses hanging, and tried his best to shut the door without pinching his fingers._

"_Listen Fred," Percy whispered, "we can't make a sound or they'll catch us. We just have to wait for Mum and Dad, okay?"_

_Fred nodded. "Where's George?"_

"_He's with Charlie, they'll be fine." He reassured him, stroking the top of his head. He seemed to like that, and stayed quiet. "Bill's here too, he'll take care of us once they leave."_

_Vaguely, Percy could hear someone moving things about a few floors below him, but it seemed as if they were safe. He didn't actually know where Charlie and George were, or where Bill was, but he hoped they had found a good hiding place._

_It seemed like hours that they waited in that wardrobe, but it was still too soon when the door to the room they were hiding in creaked open._

_Percy held his breath. The person in the doorway didn't move for a long while, which only increased Percy's nervousness._

_Slowly, he started to rummage through the few possessions Alice and Frank Longbottom had left behind. After a while, he seemed satisfied and headed out. Percy felt intensely relieved. That is, until he moved back in again and threw open the wardrobe door._

_Percy's breath caught in his throat and he clutched Fred's shoulder tighter. The intruder began to rifle through the coats and dresses hung up, and Percy's blood started pulsing in his ears. He was half afraid that the intruder would be able to hear his thumping heart._

_But then he left. He didn't see Percy or Fred, and left from the room. He heard the footsteps fade away, and he exhaled heavily._

_The front door slammed again, and both Percy and Fred jumped. There was silence again, before voices could be heard. They escalated and soon all Percy could hear were thumps and crockery smashing._

_A gun shot rang out. It made both of them jump again, and Fred started to cry._

"_Shh, Fred. Everything's alright. Don't worry." He stroked his head again._

_He heard the front door slamming again, and the house was enveloped in silence. Percy didn't know how long he stayed in the wardrobe with Fred, but it must have been a while since Fred fell asleep._

_Deciding it was safe to find his brothers, he left the wardrobe, careful not to disturb Fred, and crept out of the room._

"_Charlie? Bill?" He whispered as loud as he dared. He got no answer._

_Slowly, he tiptoed downstairs until he was in the main corridor on the ground floor. "Charlie?" he tried again. "Bill?" Still no reply._

_Cautiously, he pushed open the door to the kitchen. A putrid smell came through as the door slowly opened. Something tickled his bare feet. A sticky liquid – blood. With his eyes he followed the trail into the kitchen and stopped dead._

_There on the floor was Dorcas Meadowes. She hadn't just been shot in the chest, her head had been cracked open. He could see her brains spilling out, congealed blood clumped around it._

_He backed out of the kitchen, not wanting to look at her but at the same time unable to take his eyes of her. His hands felt clammy, and his breath came quickly through his mouth. He dragged his eyes away from the corpse in front of him and ran out of the kitchen._

_Where were his brothers?_

"Charlie!" Percy woke up with a scream.

* * *

**A/N: So you like it? You don't like it? Meh, just review =]**


End file.
